The new research from Notre Dame Psychologist, Darcia Narvaez studied more than 600 adults, and found that those who had been cuddled as children had grown into more well-adjusted adults with less anxiety, with better mental health.

The study also found that a positive childhood with lots of affection and quality time led to healthier adults who have better coping skills. The research will soon be featured in the journal Applied Developmental Science.

Research has already been done to show how cuddling helps premature babies, and now that researchers are seeing the effects all the way up to adulthood, it just goes to show that a little cuddling won’t hurt anybody.

Dr Armeet Singh, a paediatrician from the Unitypoint Clinic in Bettendorf suggests that showing love and affection to your upset infant is critical for developmental reasons, as this lays the foundation to a strong relationship.

He added that, "The first four to six months of life for babies , that is one of the most important times for babies to develop that special bonding with their parents and their primary caregivers. Now those are the times where definitely we encourage families that at any point of time they are crying, they are looking for somebody to help them out we need to respond to that.”

Click on the next page to find out more about the benefits of cuddling your crying child!

You can't spoil a baby by picking him up

Narvaez tells WSBT that it is impossible to “spoil” a baby by picking him up when he’s crying, and that it will actually “ruin” his development if you let him cry.

"What parents do in those early months and years are really affecting the way the brain is going to grow the rest of their lives, so lots of holding, touching and rocking, that is what babies expect. They grow better that way.

"And keep them calm, because all sorts of systems are establishing the way they are going to work. If you let them cry a lot, those systems are going to be easily triggered into stress.

"We can see that in adult hood, that people that are not cared for well, tend to be more stress reactive and they have a hard time self calming," said Narvaez.